P#28: A Family Portrait in Black and White

Patience is a Virtue

Cheryl Dorskind: I choose to share this picture of a family portrait because it's another shot that's very hard to get. This is another family I've been photographing for many years. A lot of my clients I've photographed year after year after year. It's really nice because I get to see everyone grow. The two kids here did not want to get their picture taken. (click the image for a larger version)

In this picture, we were a little late in the year. This was probably the last weekend in October, so it was really cold. The two boys just did not want to do this photograph so the parents are definitely mad and I'm there for over an hour and a half.

The family is tired. It's dark outside -- you can see by the dark background which creates a nice low key picture which is perfect for photography moments. I got down on the grass and put this pose together because I just knew that the kids were tired of being so difficult.

I'm into hands so I got all these hands connecting one another -- a touchy feely connection when you're doing a family portrait. It's nice to have some ribbon going along by where the heads are positioned. The arms also create eye movement so this is very posed but it was freezing which you can't see.

It took forever to get the kids to just relax. That's how this picture was created. The client really loved the contrast of the black and white, so the whole composition and tonal value worked great.

To Conclude

Portraits aren't always easy to create, especially when children don't feel like cooperating. A good photographer never gives up. It took Cheryl nearly two hours to capture this amazing shot, but her patience and hard work turned into a family portrait that any family (and photographer) would be proud of.